Saturday, March 13, 2010

18th March Douglas Florian (1950)

The Sharks

Sharks can park

Wherever they wish.

They do not fear

The other fish.

Sharks can swim

Wherever they please.

On this each other

Fish agrees.

This is one of the fabulous sea creature poems that are in Douglas Florian's In the Swim.Young Australianchildren are fascinated by sharksand they will borrow shark books again and again, so a poster of this poem displayed in the library would be well read. American, Florian writes very quirky poems about all sorts of things and then illustrates the poems himself with equally unique paintings. His animal poetry anthologies such as Mammalabilia; Beast Feastand Insectopedia are fun to share with children. He writes about skinks, aardvarks, camels, flying fish, absolutely everything that you can think of. There is a very interesting interview explaining his unconventional work. His poems will be perfect for World Poetry Day on the 21st March!

PS. While researching for and collecting poems for Poetry Day I learned that Lillian Moore's birthday was yesterday and I didn't mention her. How remiss. She started her working life as a teacher so her poems appeal to young children. See her anthology I'm Small and Other Verse. Add her to your calendar. This poem of hers is very fitting for this moment!

About Me

I'm a teacher/librarian in an early childhood school library. The library caters for 3-8 year old children, their teachers and their parents.
My aim here is to showcase at least one book each day until there is ' a year in a Prep School Library'. Usually the date will be the birthday of someone who is connected with Children's Literature.
I have met my initial challenge to write about a book every day, so now I write much more intermittently when I have learned of a new birthday, special day, have had a wonderful teaching moment or have found a great new book.